This article is part two of “Actions in Action at Adobe”. Please read through the first article and familiarize yourself with and install the Video Player Plus before continuing.

Note: Instruction in this post require Adobe Acrobat X Pro

Overview:

The new Actions Wizard in Adobe Acrobat X can be leveraged to automate repetitive tasks. One such task is the ability to add document level JavaScript and set actions on objects in a PDF document. Because object level JavaScript can only be attached to specific objects, buttons and layers, in this use case, strict naming conventions must be adhered to when authoring documents using InDesign.

The new Actions Wizard in Adobe Acrobat X can be leveraged to automate repetitive tasks. One such task is the ability to add document level JavaScript and set actions on objects in a PDF document. Basically, you can write an Action to automate the addition of complex interactivity that would otherwise be tedious and prone to human error.

At Adobe we’ve actually leveraged this capability to enable one of our partners to create Dynamic PDF files for our customer success stories. Almost all of the work takes place in InDesign where they’re most comfortable. The final step happens in Acrobat; they simply run an Action that I developed for them. Seconds later, the job is complete.